Petals of the Fox
by eldritchbob
Summary: An accident in class involving Konoha's two blonds leads to Ino's eyes being opened to many things. How will Naruto's life be changed by a simple exercise involving Genjutsu's, and will Konoha survive an angry Inoichi? Find out here.


**AN: WAHAA! EldritchBob here, brining you my newest story, a Naruto x Ino one!  
It's not going to be them straight off the bat though, so don't expect that. I've had this story rattling around in my skull for a while, and it is finally being put down.  
*Gunshot*  
NOT THAT TYPE OF PUT DOWN!  
*sigh*…just can't get the staff these days.  
This story came about after I found myself wondering…why would Ino chase after Sasuke anyway? And then it hit me.  
*thwak*  
Ow!**

Chapter 1: Oops.

It was an unusually calm day in Konoha, so the villagers were wary. It was too quiet, until…

"NARUTO! GET BACK IN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

The members of the village let out a sigh of relief. Everything was back to normal, and the apocalypse had been averted. Meanwhile, a certain knuckle headed academy student was sitting in the middle of the assorted students, where Iruka could keep an eye on him. On a side note, all the windows were now nailed shut, but that wasn't really of much importance.

"I can't believe that you tried to climb out of the window…again!" Well, maybe the nailed up windows WERE important after all. The blond child huffed and glowered at one of the rooms corners. A rather chubby (not fat, chubby) boy sitting next to him elbowed Naruto in the side gently.

"Bad luck Naruto, you almost got out." Naruto sighed and smiled at the boy, Chōjii, before turning back to what Iruka was saying.

"Now this is going to be your first lesson on Genjutsu detection. We know that there is a bit of a risk starting these lessons in your second to last year, but I'm confident that you'll all do well." The man grinned at his class, who all started talking excitedly with one another. "Okay everyone, settle down…I said Settle Down…" as a vain throbbed in Iruka's forehead, he made a handsign and took a deep breath. His head expanded to a giant size.

"SHUT UP!"

The room fell silent as their teacher's head almost instantly returned back to normal. "Thank you. Now, as I was saying…you're going to be taught to detect a genjutsu, and then three ways to dispel a genjutsu." Everyone started paying attention, especially the 'pink haired banshee' who sat sandwiched between her ex-best friend, and the brooding Uchiha. Of course when the word 'everyone' is used, there are a few anomalies. The pineapple haired Nara was sleeping, the chubby Akimichi was eating, and Naruto was trying to ignore the hateful glares he was getting from other students, while trying to pay attention.

"To detect a genjutsu when you know you're not in a hostile situation, just feel for any strange chakra signatures in the area, like this." Iruka placed his hand together in the ram seal, and began focussing. After a moments silence, a thin blue glow appeared around him before suddenly disappearing. Iruka opened his eyes, and briefly looked around the room. "Now, you've all been taught how to do that without the blue glow, or the closing of eyes for that matter, but that was a demonstration of how you can do it. Now there are three different ways to dispel genjutsus once you've discovered them;"

"The first, but slowest method, is to direct your chakra at the genjutsu and destroy it there."

"The second, but fastest method, is pulse your chakra to blast away the genjutsu. This is a technique that uses a vastly larger amount of chakra, and should only really be attempted by chūnin or jonin. Think of the first method as a kunai, hitting the target directly, and the second as an explosive tag, destroying everything."

"The third method is to pump your chakra into the person or object that the genjutsu is affecting, disrupting the chakra flow of the illusion. Think of that one as...a close quarters version of the first." He smiled at the class. "I'm going to set you up in pairs. One will be detecting genjutsus that I'm going to set up and the other will be dispelling them." Iruka picked up a list from his desk and cleared his throat. "Shikamaru Nara, Chōjii Akamichi." the two friends made their respective sounds of understanding, a mumbled 'troublesome' and a munching of crisps. "Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzaka." There was a bark of excitement, and a stuttered understanding. "Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno."

"HA! IN YOUR FACE INO-PIG!" Sakura screeched, causing everyone to flinch, and her ex-friend to wince.

"Geeze Forehead, do you have to be so loud?" the platinum blond queried, rubbing her ear in pain.

"SAUSKE-KUN!" was the only reply Ino got.

"Hn." Was the only reply Sakura got.

Most of the girls swooned.

Most of the boys sweat-dropped.

"As I was saying…Shino Aburami, Ami." The stoic Aburame nodded thoughtfully, and Ami gulped nervously (she had a deep-set phobia of bugs.) Iruka read of a list of other students, none-of-whom any of the others actually knew anything about, until… "And finally, Ino Yamanaka, Naruto Uzumaki" (**AN: Whoops! Almost put Naruto Uchiha there ^^u**) There was silence across the classroom. An eerie silence that was suddenly shattered by a foul voice from the brooding side.

"Hah! Bad luck Ino-pig, not only do I get to be Sasuke-kun's partner, you're stuck with the dead-last!" Ino rolled her eyes and gracefully flicked her ponytail over her shoulder as she stood.

"Aah stuff it Pinkey. Naruto's not that bad." Sakura scoffed, before turning every iota of her attention to her precious 'Sasuke-kun'. Ino stretched, and made her way over to the bench that Naruto was at. The two had a strange friendship, as they insulted each other a lot and argued even more, but were still somehow able to remain friends. "Shika, Choji," Ino nodded to her life-long (all 12 years of it) friends, before turning to Naruto with a wicked grin. "Whiskers." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Pig." He returned the small dig.

*munch-munch-munch*

"Troublesome Blonds."

The last comment resulted in two 'Thwak' noises, and two lumps protruding from the top of the shadow ninja's head.

"Alright students, while you have all been arguing, I've set up sixty small genjutsus around the room. Everyone move to an area where you won't bother or influence another pair. Each of you must dispel three genjutsus. Get to it!" Ino quickly moved to a space at the front of the classroom, with Naruto following closely behind.

"Alright Naruto, how do you want to do this?" Ino asked, facing her fellow blond, one hand on her hip. Naruto stopped for a moment, staring at the young girl, who would normally be ordering him about. She raised an eyebrow and started tapping her foot.

"Err, you break them first?" Ino beamed at him, clapping her hands in excitement. Naruto grinned and placed his hands together. He gathered  
chakra up, until Ino smacked him on the shoulder.

"Not that much Naruto! If you did that in the field, you'd alert every enemy ninja in the area!" Naruto mumbled an apology, and turned down the amount of chakra. "Still a lot, but it's better. Show me the illusions, fox boy." Naruto grinned, before pointing to a blue maths book on Iruka's desk, a light bulb, and finally a space on the wall, next to the floor. Ino nodded, and attacked them with the first method of genjutsu destruction. The blue book turned orange, eliciting a yelp from their teacher, the light bulb went out and revealed itself to be broken, and a hole appeared in the wall, terrifying a mouse. Iruka frowned.

"I'll need to have words with the cleaning staff about this." He muttered, before smiling at the blond couple. "Good work spotting those Naruto, and good work disabling them Ino. They weren't the ones you were meant to find, but good work." The two grinned happily at the praise.

"Right, it's your turn, Whiskers." Ino turned around, and started gathering her own chakra. She noticed Naruto looking strangely at her. "What's wrong Naruto?"

"You've…you've got a gen-whatsit on you."

"Its genjutsu Naruto, and what are you talking about?" He looked at her.

"I sort of noticed it before you told me to lower my chakra, and I noticed it again when you were charging yours." Ino chewed her lip thoughtfully, before muttering the familiar release word, 'Kai'. She looked at Naruto, slightly worried.

"Is it still there?" Naruto started overloading the detection technique again, gaining a strange look from Iruka. Naruto nodded when he saw a strange aura around Ino's head and chest. Ino once more chewed her lip. "Try…can you try disabling it?" Naruto took in a deep breath, before grinning as brightly as he could, his eyes showing his concern and worry before his usual mask clamped them shut.

"Don't worry Ino. I'll obliterate the stupid thing! Believe it!" His words had the right effect, as she calmed down. Naruto focused his chakra and tried to shoot it towards Ino. After three failed attempts, Naruto blasted it out, trying to replicate the second technique. Needless to say, it worked. And Iruka found out about several more broken bulbs. Unfortunately, Ino still had the genjutsu fuzz around her. Naruto growled and contemplated their next action.

"Well that's two out of three gone." Ino pouted, and sighed. Naruto on the other hand perked up.

"That's right! There's still a third method." Both children were unaware of Iruka making his way towards them, his journey made more difficult by students stopping him to ask for help. "Right, so I just have to touch you, and channel my catra,"

"Chakra"

"Whatever, into you." Ino hesitantly nodded, channelling her own catra/chakra/whatever to show the genjutsu. Naruto placed his hands on her shoulders, and concentrated, pushing more and more towards the girl. The attention of the class gradually shifted to the two, as their blond class mates started to saturate the room with the high amounts of chakra that they were using. Well, high for Ino and normalish for Naruto. The genjutsu around Ino's head suddenly became visible to the entire class for a moment, before a loud cracking noise filled the room. The genjutsu swirled away, and Ino screamed in pain before collapsing in Naruto's arms. Iruka ran up, and checked Ino.

"What happened Naruto?" He asked kindly, trying to calm the distraught child.

"I-I-I don't know, TH-there was a thingy on Ino, and I said I'd break it, and-and-and I did but then there was a crack and Ino screamed and then she collapsed and then and then," Naruto was panicking, and looked as if he was about to hyperventilate.

"Easy Naruto, calm down. I'll take the two of you to the infirmary, and inform Ino's parents." Iruka placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder to calm him. It had the desired effect, and Iruka quickly steered Naruto, who was still holding an unconscious Ino in his arms, to the infirmary.

**A/N: And that's where we shall end this first chapter! Can anyone guess what the genjutsu did?  
Also, metaphoric cookie if you can name where Catra comes from.  
I do not own the Naruto series, but I do own this particular fanfiction.**


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